1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to cleaning cards that clean magnetic heads of magnetic card readers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In this information age and cashless society, the role and range of various card applications have become increasingly widespread. For example, a card which carries data of one type or another is used in credit card swipe readers, ATM terminals, facsimile and copy machines, slot machines, petroleum card readers, check readers, thermal print readers, credit vending machines, time badge readers, telephone card readers, currency counters, hotel door locks, toll gates, and mass transit to name a few. The possibilities are endless. The data carrying card is generally inserted through a slot in the processing equipment where the card may be engaged by one or more feed rollers and passed by a read, write or print head for processing data carried by the card.
For the magnetic head to read data and write data from the card, the magnetic head must make intimate contact with the magnetic media present on the card. One of the most frequent causes of misreads is dirt buildup on the magnetic head. The head picks up contaminants from the media during repeated reading operations. In the case of mass transit, dirt buildup comes from the environment, including subways and trains, as well as human oil residues present on the card itself. The residue from the card is deposited on the magnetic head. When mixed with steel dust from the rail tracks and high humidity, a gummy substance is created which builds up on the magnetic head.
One conventional method for cleaning heads, sensors and/or rollers is to use a cleaning card. The cleaning card has the approximate dimensions of the data carrying card. Typically, cleaning cards are constructed as a laminate of a semi-rigid core of acrylic, PVC, PET or ABS plastic material or the like with nonwoven fibers or a soft substantially nonabrasive material chemically bonded to both the side surfaces thereof. The cleaning card is fairly rigid and absorbent and may be presaturated with a solvent or solvent may be added just prior to the use of the cleaning card.
Several cleaning cards are currently available, however, they do not adequately clean the magnetic head or reader. For example, Monia, U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,145 discloses a card for cleaning transducer heads. The surface region of the card is visually distinguishable when it is holding a solvent as compared to when it is not. Rzasa, U.S. Pat. No. 5,227,226 discloses a cleaning card that absorbs a wide range of cleaning solvents while providing a surface texture that, in combination with the solvent, cleans feed path rollers and optical magnetic or thermal read print heads. Eyler, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,525,417 and 5,824,611 disclose a cleaning card which has a first and second material mechanically bonded to its side surfaces. The first material is an abrasive which is substantially impenetrable and the second material is soft, highly absorbent fabric.
None of these currently available cleaning cards adequately clean a magnetic head or reader. They only clean the one side of the head that comes into contact with the edge of the card when it is swiped through the magnetic reader.
Another conventional method of cleaning magnetic card readers is to remove the contaminants by wiping the surface of the heads and rollers with a soft paper or rag impregnated with a cleaning solvent. In this case, however, it is necessary to disassemble the equipment for exposing the rollers and heads. The low usage equipment recommended cleaning schedule is one time per week. For high usage it is daily. Therefore, this method is labor intensive and hence, impractical.
Accordingly, there has been a need for a cleaning card which is effective in removing stubborn contaminants and for making the daily cleaning process faster, thus keeping the equipment running efficiently and with little interruption.